{"id":17978,"date":"2026-07-22T13:22:22","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T01:22:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=17978"},"modified":"2026-07-22T13:26:38","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T01:26:38","slug":"coroner-told-about-lynnmall-terrorists-time-in-prisons-extreme-risk-unit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=17978","title":{"rendered":"Coroner told about LynnMall terrorist’s time in prison’s extreme risk unit"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Coroners Court has heard about conditions inside the extreme risk unit where LynnMall attacker Ahamed Samsudeen was housed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Samsudeen was shot dead by police, ending his stabbing spree at a West Auckland mall five years ago.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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A coroner’s inquest is under way\u00a0into his death<\/a>, with parts two and three looking into the time leading up to the attack and Samsudeen’s path to violent extremism.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Just seven weeks before the 2021 attack that resulted in six people stabbed and another injured, Ahamed Samsudeen was released from his second stint in prison.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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He was first behind bars in 2017, bailed a year later, and back in prison by August 2018.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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During this time, Samsudeen was moved from Mt Eden Prison to Auckland’s Paremoremo maximum security prison.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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While there, he spent time in the prison’s extreme risk unit, kept away from other prisoners.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The coroner heard from the unit’s principal Corrections officer at the time, who cannot be named.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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He was asked by the lawyer representing Samsudeen’s family, Fletcher Pilditch KC, about what a day in the unit looked like.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“His yard time, so therefore the time that he spent outside, that was outside of his cell but in his personal yard?” Pilditch asked.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“Correct,” the officer said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“And at all other times he would be in his cell?” – That was also correct.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The officer told Pilditch that Samsudeen and others would be served breakfast at eight in the morning, eaten in their cells on their own.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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How much time they spent out of the cell would depend on what appointments the inmate had, as well as their yard time, he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Counsel assisting the coroner, Rebekah Jordan, asked the officer how Samsudeen would spend time inside his cell.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“He has a TV in his cell, he has reading material, he would use his cell-attached yard, pray, that sort of thing,” he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Samsudeen was allowed two hours of yard time a day, one in the morning and another in the afternoon, the officer said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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He also had library books and a Quran to read, as well as his own legal documents.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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She quoted evidence given earlier in the inquest from another prisoner in a cell near to Samsudeen, who’s identity was also suppressed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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” ‘The daily comments and abuse from staff and inmates did not help, we would be locked in this environment for 22 to 24 hours a day, so there was no escape from it. Staff would condone or ignore this behaviour from other prisoners’,” she said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“It’s not uncommon for prisoners to abuse each other,” the officer said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The officer said this kind of abuse would be addressed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“If Mr Samsudeen for example was shouting abuse, you’d encourage him to cut it out, there’s not much more you can do.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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He did not respond to comments about abuse from staff.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Jordan asked the officer about the prison programmes that would have been available for Samsudeen.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“He assessed in June 2020 as not being suitable to participate in group programmes due to his influence capability – I just wanted to explore with you, what does that mean?” she asked.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“Attempting to spread his ideology, for example,” the officer said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The inquest was to continue on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Source: RNZ<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Coroners Court has heard about conditions inside the extreme risk unit where LynnMall attacker Ahamed Samsudeen was housed. Samsudeen was shot dead by police, ending his stabbing spree at a West Auckland mall five years ago. A coroner’s inquest is under way\u00a0into his death, with parts two and three looking into the time leading […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":17980,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[174],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nz-news"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17978"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17978\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17979,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17978\/revisions\/17979"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}